Facebook dominates social media with 2 billion users a month
The company had some 1.94 billion people using its service monthly as of March 31, an increase of 17 per cent from a year earlier. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had revised the online social network's mission statement - saying its all about community.

"Adding injury to insult, Liu Xiaobo has been diagnosed with a grave illness in prison, where he should never have been put in the first place", Patrick Poon, China researcher at global rights group Amnesty International, told AFP.

Liu's wife tweeted at the time that, upon hearing the news from her during a prison visit, he started to cry and said: "This is for the martyrs of Tiananmen Square". They normalized ties in December past year. In April, Beijing finally normalized relations with Oslo after a six-year hiatus.

The Chinese authorities say he is a criminal and have repeatedly jailed him for his protests against their rule.

US Senator Marco Rubio, co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, issued a statement urging US President Donald Trump to seek Liu Xiaobo's "immediate humanitarian transfer to the United States".

Hu Jia, a fellow activist, said that the family wanted Liu to be treated in Beijing, where hospitals are better, or overseas, but that Chinese authorities had other plans, possibly fearing unrest ahead of big political meetings scheduled for the fall.

"It's very hard to understand why his illness is only being treated at the last stage", said Amnesty International's Patrick Poon.

The Chinese government confirmed Liu's diagnosis and parole in a statement released late Monday.

After the crackdown, Mr. Liu was jailed for 21 months, the first of several prison terms he served for his pro-democracy organizing.

The global community has been calling for his release for years.

But a spokesperson for the foreign ministry in Beijing said they were unaware of the details of Liu's case when asked about him at a regular news briefing on Monday.

With her communication with the outside world nearly completely cut, friends say she has been suffering severe depression and nervous breakdowns, especially after the authorities sentenced her brother to 11 years in prison over what supporters call trumped-up charges of business fraud.